Impressed…

Recently, we spent a few weeks in South Africa and I was really impressed by a couple of things.
Firstly the food.

Now here in Bulawayo, we eat well, don’t get me wrong. Ribeye steak from the Butcher Shop is good, his biltong is unrivaled, but its hard to find the goodies which are so easy to get down south, to add to a good rump or fillet. The wild mushrooms, asparagus, the yummy spices. Look, we get mushrooms here, but always button ones, not a choice between those lovely ones with brown undersides you can cut into interesting patterns and those ones which look like mould in a forest. Makes you think you are back to the ‘caves’ a foraging woman with a sack over your back, hunting and gathering.
The variety always impresses me too. You don’t just get one kind of say, strawberries or apples, you get six different variations. Wild strawberries and cream strawberries. And grapes. Man – they have boxes and boxes of different varieties and colours, seedless, huge juicy…
I’m sure you get the message.

I just go wild on the fruit.

This time they had prickly pairs and a new kind of naartjie that doesn’t have pips. We started eating the naartjies in Ellisrus, now Lephalale. We bought two boxes intending to share with the kids, but we ate them all on the way.

Hey, it’s a long way from Lephalale to Randburg.

As always, a change in diet messes with the stomach. I’m not sure, ‘in the caves,’ humans didn’t change their diets often because my poor old tummy always objects to a sudden addition of fruit to it.

So much for the food in South Africa.

The second thing I was really impressed with in South Africa on this visit is my kid’s dog. We have always called our pets after important people, you know movie stars or the queen. The kids have carried on the tradition and this one is called Lindsay. Lindsay Lohan. Why? Duh…Cos she is a dog. Lindsay is a cross Alsatian and she has these cute little ears which fold over funny and I think she smiles too. She is a real good guard dog. AND she doesn’t eat cats.
The most amazing thing about Lindsay is that she is a ventriloquist. No. I’m serious, she really is and a really really good one too. I think the kids have not realised her full potential. They could make allot of money with her if they took her on tours and on traveling fairs. You see, she can stand by the door of the kitchen and project the sound of a fart all the way across the room and she is so good that I could swear on more than one occasion I could even feel my cheeks vibrate. She is that good.

About frankiekay

I'm an author from Bulawayo, Zimbabwe. I've written a novel, Silk Threads and a few short stories. Although Frankie is a pen name, she is the me who never grew up, the crazy kid who spoke to animals, talked to the wildflowers and asked awkward questions...I love: music, the silence..., distant horizons. I hate: crowds and spending money